Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players (golfers), using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while making the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf “courses,” each of which features a unique design of 9 or 18 holes. Golf is defined, in the rules of golf, as “playing a ball with a club from the teeing ground into the hole by a stroke or successive strokes in accordance with the Rules.” Golf competition is generally played for the lowest number of strokes by an individual, known simply as stroke play, or the lowest score on the most individual holes during a complete round by an individual or team, known as match play.
The origin of golf is unclear and open to debate. Some historians trace the sport back to the Roman game of paganica, in which participants used a bent stick to hit a stuffed leather ball. One theory asserts that paganica spread throughout Europe as the Romans conquered most of the continent, during the first century B.C., and eventually evolved into the modern game. Others cite chuiwan (“chui” means striking and “wan” means small ball) as the progenitor, a Chinese game played between the eighth and 14th centuries. A Ming Dynasty scroll dating back to 1368 entitled “The Autumn Banquet”, shows a member of the Chinese Imperial court swinging what appears to be a golf club at a small ball with the aim of sinking it into a hole. The game is thought to have been introduced into Europe during the Middle Ages. Another early game that resembled modern golf was known as cambuca in England and chambot in France. This game was, in turn, exported to the Germany and England (where it was called pall-mall, pronounced “pell mell”). Some observers, however, believe that golf descended from the Persian game, chaugán. In addition, kolven (a game involving a ball and curved bats) was played annually in Loenen, Netherlands, beginning in 1297, to commemorate the capture of the assassin of Floris V, a year earlier. No matter where golf originated from, the modern game of golf came from Scotland, where the first written record of golf is James Ills banning of the game in 1457.
Since the beginnings of golf, the sport has spread throughout the world. Today, millions of people play golf every year along a similar set of rules. The initial stroke on a hole is a long-distance shot intended to move the ball a great distance down the fairway, as this shot is commonly called a “drive.” Shorter holes generally are initiated with “shorter” clubs. Once the ball comes to rest, the golfer strikes it again as many times as necessary using shots that are variously known as a lay-up, an approach, a “pitch,” or a chip, until the ball reaches the green, where he or she then putts the ball into the hole (commonly called “sinking the putt”). The goal of getting the ball into the hole (“holing” the ball) in as few strokes as possible may be impeded by obstacles such as areas of long grass called rough (usually found alongside fairways) which both slows any ball that contacts it and makes it harder to advance a ball that has stopped on it, bunkers (“sand traps”), and water hazards. In most forms of gameplay, each player plays his or her ball until it is holed.
Golfers typically use a set of several clubs as they make their way around a course. When playing golf, it is very common for a club to placed upon the ground for a variety of reasons. A club may be placed on the ground to mark a ball or simply laid down when choosing between clubs. A club may fall to the ground mistakenly or even be thrown down in frustration. In either case, the club must be picked up. It can become tiresome to be repeatedly bending over to pick up a club. Also, many golfers are of an older age making it more difficult to bend down to pick up objects. Balance is difficult and a person may stumble and fall over. Also, joints don't bend as well as they did when one was younger. Accordingly, there is a need for a way to pick up a club and various other metallic objects without the need to bend over, which can be utilized on the golf course. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.